Ares GamesComments Off on Ares Games and Gremlin Project announce new Sword & Sorcery board game

Aug052015

Ares Games and Gremlin Project announce new Sword & Sorcery board game

Legendary heroes fight the forces of evil in a new fantasy cooperative game designed by the team who created Galaxy Defenders

July 26th, 2015 – Heroes with unique powers are called back from death to save the kingdom and break the spell that binds their souls, in the new game developed by Gremlin Project and due to be published by Ares Games in 2016: Sword and Sorcery, an epic-fantasy cooperative board game, where one to five players fight together against the forces of evil, controlled by the game system itself.

A long time ago the Kami, spirit protectors of the world, were unknown to all but those who practiced Shinto. Then, a cataclysmic event nearly destroyed us all. What was salvaged from the wreckage were people who could see Kami and bond with them. This power, combined with elite training in schools of martial arts, lead to powerful clans fighting against the chaos. But what happened when the darkness was defeated? The strongest fighters bonded with their Kami are destined to repeat the past in a battle for honor and domination!

Yashima, Legend of the Kami Masters is a card-driven miniatures game where each player customizes their deck in a free-for-all or team based showdown to be the last one standing! It includes four characters and four Kami, each with their own deck of cards. Each character has their own high-detail miniature.

In this Episode Matt Flips Through the small rule book for Bolt Action from Warlord Games. Bolt Action is a historical miniatures game by Cavatore and Priestly that is published by Warlord Games and Osprey Publishing. This book is just full of color pictures and high quality images.

I have never really dove into a historical game but I think i’m getting ready to.

In this Box Breaking Matt takes a look at the smash hit Myth from Megacon Games. Myth is a semi-cooperative miniature board game. It features highly detailed miniatures. The rules incorporate an almost arcade like style of gaming on to the table. Watch as Matt shares its contents.

There won’t be new ships or the Captain’s Box at Gen Con. Still trying to work out a new process in production that will finally allow the line to move forward in a way that will be both profitable for Catalyst and a regular release schedule for players.

In the mean time, we’re trying to see if we can’t get something to Gen Con for Leviathans players. I’ve talked about this concept before. That we’ve been working on and off on these things forever, but we’re pushing to see if we can’t have a deck of Ship Quirks and Crew Abilities for sell; they won’t be for sell in stores anytime in the near future, but we’ll look at putting them on sell online after Gen Con.

So…what would these cards entail? Why would we want these in the game? Well…as any good miniatures game progresses…well, you add to it. Simply the nature of the beast. And for me, right from the get go as I was designing the game and then polishing it up through endless playtests, a slew of fun rules would come into my head and I’d jot them down. Ultimately, however, any of these rules do not work as “standard” rules…in fact, they won’t even work within the Captain’s Manual “enchanced rules”. Instead, they’re perfect for players to add some unique flavor to a ship in a given scenario to mix up game play.

Taking directly from the rules text that introduces both the Ship Quirks and the Crew Abilities:

Not every ship is the same, even among ships of the same class and Type. Anyone that has served on board a vessel knows the complexity of their construction creates unique design quirks that bring a flavor all their own to each ship. This is all the more true for leviathans that are still relatively nascent technologies.

The following is a series of positive and negative quirks, each with a numerical value that determines the relative strength or weakness of a given quirk. It is strongly recommended that if a player chooses a positive quirk for his ship, he or she should give it a negative quirk of equal as well. However, each playing group can decide if negative quirks must balanced positive quirks.

CREW ABILITIES
A ship is far more than the nuts and bolts and electroid that holds it together in the sky. The men and women that bring their skills, passions and blood are what elevate each ship to be far more than the sum of its parts, turning a ship into a legend. The following rules allow players to bring the crew of a ship to life.

“Just show me some of the rules!” I can hear you saying…so here here we go.

First up, the current look of the Ship Quirks and two of many, many cards that’ll be apart of deck.

Right out of the gate, note that these were test layouts done…well…a good while ago, so the rules have progressed in playtesting since then. For example, the current final rules for “Superior Armor” are:

A particularly superlative batch of materials results in superior armor.

All Armor Slots on the ship provide an additional +1 modifier to any Slot Numbers in its Location.

The value for this quirk is based upon the total +1 Breach modifiers provided by all Armor Slots on the ship. For example, the HML Raven has five +1 Armor Slots and so the value of this quirk assigned to that ship would be 5. However, the HML Beagle has five +1 Armor Slots and a +2 Armor Slot, so the value of this quirk assigned to that ship would be 7.

As for “Accurate Weapon”, the final text will have a point value of “+2, +2, +3, +4, +4? to reflect the fact that this helps smaller dice more than larger dice, while it also won’t be able to be used with Bracketing Fire (just too sick).

Next up, the Crew Abilities. You’ll notice no point values on either of these cards…that’s because when these were given a test layout, the points were not yet assigned.

All-Weather is pretty much as is, still, just getting a 1 point cost added.

As for Lady Luck…it’s one of the most powerful of the Crew Abilities, and so will be priced at 5 points. Even then, we’ll be folding in a change to curb it down..a “own ship only” text will keep it from being too sick…but it’s still a great ability.

Anyways…there ya have it! Please note, we are ‘trying’ to have this at Gen Con, but no promises. Regardless, after Gen Con, we’ll move to get these released in PDF format for purchase. They’ll add a wonderful variety of play to any style of game.

Paul Eaglestone’s A World Aflame is an alternate/real history miniatures game. The interwar is set in the years 1918 to 1939. While there are no lists to the game he does provide some sample lists. Nor is there a particular scale to play in, he uses 28mm.

The rules set offers a unique rules that took me a little getting used to. The oddest thing for me is the army construction. With the absence of point values the units become more equipment or initiative based. Initiative is probably the most important factor in the game, since the game uses alternate activations that follow in initiative order. Outside of Construction the rules are fairly simple, that is just like most miniature games you roll the dice to achieve a target number.

There are a couple of simple rules that add flavor to the game. The best of these is a deck of Chance cards. Each card is an event that can be used. These can be anything from sniper to extra ammunition.

If I played A World Aflame on a regular basis I would probably drop the communication and ammunition tracking rules. While they add a certain amount of flavor to depict the era, I think the upkeep isn’t worth the trade.

All in all it is a well written set of rules with a tremendous amount of freedom for game play and scenarios that you create. It isn’t a tournament style game. I think you could create some pretty amazing campaigns though. If you are a Flames of War player the lack of scenarios in the book will slow you down at first.

So is it worth your two cents? It really depends on who you are. If you are a casual player then it a sure thing. If you are looking for a game that is a break from competitive play this is a good way to go. If you are a competitive player looking for competition this is not your best choice.

Dux Bellorum is a 64 page self contained rule book. It focuses on the Arthurian era of history (Ad 367 -793). The book itself features several charts and diagrams to make your game play more enjoyable and easier to learn. The art truly tells the story of the era, while the pictures of the miniatures clearly show you what you can expect on the table. This is the only book you need to play this game. It includes all of the rules, lists and equipment guides for a complete game. The author, Daniel Mersey, used his rules set Glutter of Ravens as a base for this rules set.

Mythic Greece is in chaos: Athena and Hades are at war and have sent their greatest heroes to battle. Take on the role of these generals out of legend, leading fantastic armies and lead your troops to victory!

Mythic Battles is a game which simulates epic confrontations and battles that will take your breath away. Thanks to its innovative system – the Building Battle Board (BBB), which combines game mechanisms from miniature games, board games and card games – Mythic Battles offers you an experience the likes of which you have never seen. Recruit your army, play your cards to activate your units, roll your dice to resolve combat – reinvent your way of playing!

This box contains two complete armies to play with two or four players, an initiation campaign, as well as all that’s required to play as you wish. Other armies and units will periodically be released to flesh out your campaigns.

I have already done a review of Force on Force based off of the demonstration game I played at Origins Game Fair. This will be a little more in depth than that review. You can read that here.

Most of you probably already know that Force on Force is a modern warfare skirmish game published by Osprey Publishing for Ambush Alley Games. It is an independent miniatures game without a miniatures line. The book has several recommendations where you can purchase models . I originally thought that not having a minis line would be detrimental, but the rules are set up so you can freely play any modern forces from 1960 to present. The other unique part about not having a line of minis is there is no set scale. You get to determine the size of your battlefield based off of what you own.